Kangaroos and Dolphins and Whales, oh my!

This is another post that I wrote on my iPhone for later publishing. I wrote about our first day in Australia, and what an exciting day it was.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Today was a lot of fun. I love road trips. I’m sad that I’m not doing it with my family, but Becca’s family is a close second. This morning we were all up really early. Probably because we’re still a bit jet lagged... Or because Bec and I went to bed at 8pm. It just meant we got a pretty good start to the day. Before leaving Bateman’s Bay, we caught a flea market in town. It was cute, so we just wandered a bit and bought some sourdough bread for the road.

We didn’t have many big stops, until we got to the town of Eden. It was a place full of wildlife! On the way into town, we saw a whole pack (herd? Tribe? Gathering??) of kangaroos hanging out on a golf course. A golf course! And they were just lying around, having naps and the like. It was so weird, but so awesome. We also met a great couple from Adelaide at a lookout, who showed us some whales they were watching! We couldn’t see the whales very well because they were far away, but every now and then we could see them

come out of the water a bit, or see its fin. It was neat. And then we saw dolphins!!!!! It was my first time seeing dolphins so I was really excited. They were passing by the outcropping of rocks where the lookout was. There was to have been at least 10 or 15 dolphins, including a little baby! It was awesome.

Our next crazy adventure came while we were looking for a gas station. Following the signs brought us down this suicide track of a road. I was actually fearing for my life going down this road. It ended at a nice little town by the water with, of course, a gas station. But then we had to go back up the same road to get back to the highway. It wasn’t as bad on the way out, and we saw a kangaroo on the road. People really weren’t kidding when they said kangaroos are like our deer around here.

It got dark shortly after that adventure, so there wasn’t much else to see (although most of what we were seeing was trees anyway, and lots of them). When the trees did disperse, we got an amazing view of the stars. I don’t think I’ve ever see so many stars. It was so beautiful. But then the stars went away and the rain started, so we found a place for dinner, and then a place to stay in Lakes Entrance, Victoria.

I’m really nervous for tomorrow... You know, getting to the city where we’re going to be living for who know how long. I think right now it feels like a vacation, a fun road trip, and that tomorrow things will start to sink in a bit more. We’ll see. I think tomorrow will be as fun a day as today. So although it’s only 9:30, it’s time to bed. (At least it’s later than last night!) Goodnight!